T plus
by ynotlleb
Summary: What could have happened after Howard's launch in 5.24
1. 60 seconds

**Follows on from Howard's rocket launch at the end of 5.24. Part 1, T plus 60 seconds.**

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Bernadette, Raj, Amy, Sheldon, Leonard and Penny are all sat in apartment 4A to watch the launch of Howard's Soyuz rocket.

_Bernadette: Oh, my God, it's happening._

_Penny: Did I miss it?_

_Leonard: No, come on in. Hurry._

_Bernadette: I love that man._

_Raj: Me, too._

_(Bernadette takes hold of Raj's hand)._

_Penny: I can't believe it. This whole time, a small part of me thought he was lying._

_Leonard: This is it._

_(Penny takes hold of Leonard's hand)._

_Sheldon: Boldly go, Howard Wolowitz._

_(Sheldon takes hold of Amy's hand)._

_(Russian countdown ends, rocket takes off)_

_Howard (voice off): Oy vay!_

Sixty seconds after launch the Soyuz rocket exploded in a huge ball of fire!

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T plus 24 hours everyone else is waiting in the hospital for news of Bernadette, who went into shock after seeing her husbands rocket blow up. Finally the medical staff said she was awake and they could go and see her, the other five walked into her room and went to her bedside.

Bernadette: Hello everyone, why am I in the hospital? I had a horrible nightmare that Howie's space rocket blew up

Raj took hold of Bernadette's hand and said with tears in his eyes "we are all incredibly sorry but it wasn't a nightmare."

Leonard: As far as they could determine the third stage of the rocket ignited prematurely when it was still connected to the first and second stages. The whole rocket exploded, the crew didn't have a chance to use the launch escape system, there were no survivors.

Sheldon: Of all the souls that I have met on my travels, Howard's was the most human.


	2. one week

**Follows on from Howard's rocket launch at the end of 5.24. Part 2, T plus one week.**

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One week on from the launch Bernadette and the other five attended the memorial service in Houston. This was a huge event, the President of the USA and the Russian ambassador attended. Bernadette hated every minute of it, it was bad enough to have lost her husband in such a public way after only one week of marriage. She just wanted to stay at home and grieve with her friends. Her friends were very supportive for her during the memorial, she held Raj's hand through most of the service. Bernadette, normally such a confident and forceful person seemed to be even smaller than usual.

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Two weeks on from the launch Bernadette was trying to figure how to carry on with her life without Howard. She was very grateful for all the support and attention she had been getting from the other five but she asked if she could be left alone for a while. Then she got a call from Howard's mother asking if she would come and visit. Even though Bernadette wanted time alone to grieve the loss of her husband she knew that Debbie Wolowitz was also grieving the loss of her only son.

Hello Mrs. Wolowitz.

Hello to you Mrs. Wolowitz, thank you for coming.

Why are there boxes everywhere?

That's why I called you over here Bernadette. As you know Howard and I have a lot of relatives in Florida, they were there in Houston last week. We had a family get together and they have invited me out for Florida to live out my remaining days with them. Without Howard there is nothing for me here in California. So I am leaving, I saw my lawyer yesterday and I am leaving the house to you.

I don't know what to say Mrs. Wolowitz, this is all so sudden.

Just sign the papers and then the house is yours. I am leaving tomorrow. Thank you for being so good for my Howard, have a great life.


	3. 2 months

**Follows on from Howard's rocket launch at the end of 5.24. Part 3, T plus 2 months.**

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2 months after the launch Bernadette was fully moved into Howard's old house, she had got a lot of help from the other five in the process. As a thank you she invited the other five to dinner, this helped to get some of Debbie Wolowitz's remaining frozen food eaten.

At the dinner table made a short speech.

"My dear friends; Penny, Leonard, Amy, Sheldon and especially Raj. Thank you for everything over the last two months, I am not sure how I would have coped without you. I know it can't have been easy for any of you after the loss of our dear Howard, I know that we will never forget him. However, life must go on, I am back to work at Zangen tomorrow.

Please join me in a toast :- 'To the memory of Howard and to the future!'"

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Next day Bernadette was glad to get back to work. She wanted to get back to being Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, scientist, instead of the widow of astronaut Howard Wolowitz. It was hard work getting back into the swing of things at Zangen but by the end of the week she was tired but happy. She was starting to get her old self-confidence back.

Her plans for Saturday were to have a relaxing lie-in and then meet the other five for lunch. However, she woke at 6.00am feeling sick and only just made it to the bathroom before she vomited into the sink.

Six hours later she turned up at apartment 4A ashen-faced.

"Hello everybody, I think I am pregnant!"


	4. 9 weeks

**Follows on from Howard's rocket launch at the end of 5.24. Part 4, T plus 9 weeks.**

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A trip to the doctor's surgery confirmed Bernadette's pregnancy, she had just over 6 months to go. She must have got pregnant on her wedding night. Bernadette went straight back to work and didn't tell anyone, although she knew it would soon be obvious what was in her future. Bernadette's self-confidence had taken a real battering. 10 weeks earlier she had just got married to the love of her life and she had a great scientific career ahead of her. Now she was a widow with single motherhood in her future.

Bernadette was determined to carry on by herself for as long as possible. She had turned down her parents offer to move in with them. However, the other five knew this couldn't continue for much longer.

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Four months after the launch and Bernadette couldn't hide her pregnancy from Zangen any more. On Saturday she was due to have her usual lunch with her friends. However at noon on Saturday she was still in bed crying her eyes out. At 1.30pm she could hear knocking at the door

Knock, knock, knock "Bernadette"

Knock, knock, knock "Bernadette"

Knock, knock, knock "Bernadette"

Sheldon "There's no answer"

Raj "It's OK I have a key."

Leonard "How do you have a key?"

Raj "I have a key OK, now let's go help our friend."

Raj opened the door and called out "Bernadette, we are here to help."

A couple of minutes later Bernadette called out

"I am upstairs."

The door to the bedroom opened and they saw Bernadette red-faced having cried her eyes out.

"Hello everyone, what am I going to do?"

Penny "we are here for you now sweetie. OK Amy, let's get Bernie cleaned up."

Amy "good idea bestie. Can you boys go down to the kitchen and get some lunch sorted out whilst we get Bernie washed and dressed."

40 minutes later Amy and Penny had put Bernadette in the shower and then helped her get dressed. The three ladies came down the stairs together.

Raj "There she is, our beautiful mother to be, lunch is ready."

Leonard "I am not quite sure what some of this is, I think that this is the last of Debbie Wolowitz's frozen food."

Sheldon pulled out a chair "Bernadette, you can sit here. OK, let's eat."

One hour later all six of them had a great lunch together, a chance to talk about the old days and remember Howard. When it was all over Raj said

"OK. Sheldon, please make us some tea, it is time to decide how we are going to help our dear friend Bernadette..."


	5. 6 months

**Follows on from Howard's rocket launch at the end of 5.24. Part 5, T plus 6 months.**

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After much discussion Bernadette agreed that Raj would temporarily become Bernadette's roommate until the baby arrived. He sublet his apartment and moved into the spare room. By six months after the launch Bernadette had gone on maternity leave, Bernadette and Raj then got into a routine. Bernadette had had a gynaecological chat with Raj's father, who told her off for not going to her pre-natal classes. So Raj would take her to the class every week.

On Saturday Bernadette would go out for a girls lunch with Penny and Amy. This gave Sheldon a chance to thoroughly clean the house whilst the girls were out. In the mean time Leonard would take Raj to the Comic Book store to give him a break from his duties looking after Bernadette.

Bernadette would call Debbie Wolowitz in Florida every week. Mrs Wolowitz was very happy to know she was going to be a grandmother.

Sheldon, Amy, Leonard and Penny would spend every spare minute they had each weekend helping to look after Bernadette. Penny cut down her hours at the Cheesecake Factory to give her more time to help.

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8 months after the launch Bernadette was put on bed rest. Amy took the day off work to help whilst Raj went to Caltech to see Mrs. Davis in Human Resources.

Good morning Mrs. Davis, thank you for agreeing to see me so quickly.

How can I help you Dr. Koothrappali?

I am sure you must remember Howard Wolowitz.

How could I forget him, poor man, what a way to go :-(

Howard was a very good friend of mine, as is his wife, his widow Bernadette.

I remember seeing the paperwork about his marriage.

They were only married for a week but Bernadette is 8 months pregnant with Howard's child. All of our friends are helping her with the baby, I have moved into the spare room at Bernadette's house to help look after her. Bernadette is now on bed rest until the baby comes so I would like a leave of absence so I will be there to help her 24/7. If Howard was still around he would be getting paternity leave fairly soon, that is what I want.

That is quite a request Dr. Koothrappali.

Howard made the ultimate sacrifice as part of his work here at Caltech. I must get back to Bernadette, I can be contacted at Bernadette's house, you know my phone and email contacts...


	6. 9 months

**Follows on from Howard's rocket launch at the end of 5.24. Part 6, T plus 9 months.**

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9 months after the launch Bernadette was waiting impatiently for the birth. She knew in 2 days time if there was no baby then she would go to the hospital and they would induce the birth.

As they did at the end of every day, Raj would sit next to the bed and hold Bernadette's hand as they talked of Howard, the baby, the past and the future. Bernadette said "for someone who until recently couldn't talk to women you are doing a good job Raj :-)" before she fell asleep.

Raj kissed the top of her head before going to the spare room to sleep. He had just fallen asleep when he was woken by a loud noise through the baby monitor.

"Raj, the water just broke, let's go!"

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Fifteen minutes later Raj and Bernadette arrived at the hospital where Bernadette was whisked away to the delivery room. Thirty minutes later Penny, Leonard, Amy and Sheldon all arrived, Raj temporarily left the delivery room to go to the waiting room

"Glad that you are here, they reckon the baby will be here in 2-3 hours. I need to get back to Bernadette, make yourselves comfortable. Could someone call Mrs Wolowitz in Florida and Bernadette's parents, tell them what is happening..."

A couple of hours later Bernadette was desperately holding onto Raj's hand and calling out for Howard!

"Not long now Bernadette, keep pushing."

Then the doctor said "keep holding your wife's hand Mr. Wolowitz, we can see the baby's head, just a few more minutes..."

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Thirty minutes later Raj appeared in the waiting room with a big smile on his face.

"It's a boy, mother and baby are doing fine. Bernadette has named her son Howard Michael Dmitri Wolowitz..."


End file.
